Hosted by the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye, in cooperation with the African Union and organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEİK), the fourth Türkiye–Africa Economy and Business Forum was held in Istanbul on 12-13 October 2023. Bringing together nearly 4,000 participants from 53 countries under the motto “Promoting Opportunities, Building Stronger Economic Partnerships”, the Forum featured country- and sector-based panels that explored new avenues for cooperation and investment.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Signing Ceremony, attended by Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat, AU Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining Albert Muchanga, and Comoros Union Minister of Post, Telecommunications and Digital Economy Kamalidine Souef, marked the signing of the Goodwill Agreement between DEİK and the ECCAS High Business Council, the Establishment Agreement of the Türkiye–Senegal Business Council, and cooperation agreements with the Türkiye–Cape Verde and Türkiye–Togo Business Councils.
The closing ceremony was held with the participation of H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Türkiye, H.E. Azali Assoumani, President of the Union of the Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union, Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat, AU Commissioner Albert Muchanga, DEİK President Nail Olpak, and Chairperson of the Africa Business Council Dr. Amany Asfour. In his address, President Erdoğan emphasized that Türkiye’s trade volume with Africa increased from USD 5.4 billion in 2003 to USD 41 billion in 2022, Turkish investments on the continent exceeded USD 10 billion, and Turkish contractors undertook projects worth more than USD 85.5 billion. He underlined that Türkiye would continue to advance its relations with Africa on the basis of equal partnership and a win-win approach.
Comoros President and African Union Chairperson Azali Assoumani stated that Africa needs major investments in infrastructure and energy, saying, “We must make Africa a continent of hope, and to do so, we must act together.”
Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat noted that the Forum provided an important platform for exploring opportunities in agriculture, health, infrastructure, manufacturing, tourism, textiles, and women’s entrepreneurship, while underlining the principles of equal partnership and mutual benefit as essential for sustainable growth in Türkiye–Africa trade.
DEİK President Nail Olpak announced that 9,800 bilateral business meetings were held during the Forum and reiterated DEİK’s commitment to pursuing commercial diplomacy activities with the goal of raising Türkiye–Africa trade volume first to USD 50 billion and later to USD 75 billion.
Throughout the Forum, the Türkiye–Comoros Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement was signed, while Turkish and African companies concluded numerous memoranda of understanding and cooperation agreements in energy, infrastructure, health, and technology.
Türkiye-Africa Business World's Best were awarded
Following President Erdoğan's speech, the “Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between Türkiye and the Union of the Comoros” was signed by Turkish Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat and Comoros Union Minister of Post, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy Kamalidine Souef. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Comoros President Azali Assoumani presented awards to the executives of six companies that develop projects covering the African continent and contribute to the development of trade relations with the continent. Awards were presented to Turhan Mildon, CEO of Miller Holding & Chairman of the Board of Milvest; Cemil Kazancı, Chairman of the Board of Aksa Energy; Ahmet Albayrak, Chairman of the Board of Albayrak Holding; Adnan Doğan, Vice President of Doğanlar Holding; Oğuz Çarmıklı, Vice Chairman of the Board of Nurol Holding; and Prof. Dr. Temel Kotil, General Manager of Tusaş.
Sponsored by Miller Holding, Aksa, Albayrak, Doğanlar, Kolin, Nurol, TUSAŞ, Selpak, Tay Group, Koluman, Ford Truck, and Africa Finance Corporation, the Türkiye-Africa IVth Business and Economy Forum concluded with bilateral business meetings following the Türkiye-Africa Business World Awards Ceremony held as part of the TABEF Ceremony.
III. Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forum, hosted by the Ministry of Trade, with the cooperation of the African Union and the organization of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), held at the Istanbul Congress Center between 21-22 October 2021 with the motto of "Together Stronger."
35 Ministers, 6 Deputy Ministers, and more than 3000 business people from 45 countries participated in the forum, which was honored by the President of the Republic of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan, James Wani Igga, African Union Commission (AfB) Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining Commissioner, Albert Muchanga, and African Business Council President (AfBC ), Amany Asfour.
Forum has continued with panel sessions, B2B and G2B meetings. In the G2B sessions, "Investment Opportunities & Targeted Sectors in Africa" was discussed. During the forum, prominent topics such as “Türkiye-Africa Women Leadership Dialogue”; "Collaboration between Türkiye and Africa on Agriculture and Agro-Industries." and "Türkiye’s and Africa’s Approach to Innovation and Increasing Investment” were discussed. The Forum reiterated the support for the Agenda 2063 of the African Union and expressed its satisfaction on the achievements of mutual beneficial results and agreed to hold the next Africa-Türkiye Economic and Business Forum in 2023 to consolidate the partnership.
Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forum (TABEF), jointly organized online for the very first time by Turkish Ministry of Trade, the African Union and Foreign Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEİK), was opened on Thursday October 8, 2020 with the attendance of President of Türkiye H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Minister of Trade H.E. Ruhsar Pekcan (Former), Former Economic Affairs Commissioner of African Union Commission (AUC) H.E. Victor Harrison (Former), President of DEİK Mr. Nail Olpak and Coordinating Chairperson of DEİK/Türkiye-Africa Business Councils Ms. Berna Gozbasi.
The global, digital-first and two-day Forum provided access to hot business topics discussed during 10 panel sessions, more than 50 high-level speakers, live networking among 2.500 participants (from Türkiye and 81 countries (46 African countries) with 24.844 attendee interaction, G2B meetings and virtual exhibiting booths on October 8-9 2020. About 68.000 people watched the opening session of the Forum’s livestream on social media.
Top 5 sectors of the participant companies were Agro-Industry, Building & Infrastructure, Trade & Distribution, Manufacturing and Energy.
At the event, participants discussed post-pandemic economic relations between Türkiye and Africa, as well as several other topics such as e-commerce, agriculture, health partnership, impact investment, Industrialization and free trade agreements. Furthermore, “Türkiye-Africa Women Leadership Dialogue” was launched to create a platform for Turkish and African business women to talk about their experience in changing the face of business, share know-how and discuss about the cooperation areas and how to promote women-managed businesses and their access to finance.
In the scope of developing commercial and economic relations strategy with Africa, Türkiye-Africa II. Economic and Business Forum, which is hosted by Ministry of Trade of Türkiye with the coordination of African Union (AU) and which is organized by DEİK/Türkiye-Africa Business Councils and with the “Investment on the Sustainable Future Together” main theme, was realized on October 10-11, 2018, in Istanbul.
To the event, which was honored by President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Mulatu Teshome, Republic of Rwanda President Edouard Ngirente, 26 Ministers from 43 African countries, 4 Deputy Ministers, members of parliament, Undersecretaries, Heads of Investment/ Export Support Agency and Ambassadors, including 245 official delegation members, 850 business persons from 47 African countries and 1,800 Turkish company representatives participated.
In the Forum, Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Mines and Geology of the Republic of Senegal and Tosyalı Holding and Trade and Investment Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding between Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Trade and the African Union Commission and Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between Republic of Türkiye and the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe Government were signed.
The Forum has continued with the G2B meetings in which the countries will make their presentations and with 3 three panels with the subjects of "Textile Industry Investment Opportunities and Fashion in Africa", "Cooperation Between Africa and Türkiye In The Fields of Construction, Infrastructure and " and "Integration Efforts in Africa and Opportunities for Turkish Business World"
Türkiye-ECOWAS Economic and Business Forum to Deepen Cooperation between Türkiye and West Africa Within this regard, first Türkiye-Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Economic and Business Forum was held in İstanbul on 22-23 February 2018 and brought together more than a thousand business people and ministers from Economic Community of West African States. The two-day event was organized by Foreign Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEİK) in coordination with Turkish Ministry of Economy and in cooperation with ECOWAS Commission to deepen economic cooperation between Türkiye and ECOWAS.
Forum brought together Ministers of Trade/Economy from ECOWAS countries, Chairpersons of the Chambers of Industry and Trade and Business Associations as well as members of the Turkish and African business circles, media representatives from 15 countries in West Africa. The Ministers of ECOWAS member states Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Republic of Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo participated to the forum. Main theme of the forum was “Think together, act together and win together”.
The Agribusiness Forum held under the theme of “New Perspectives, New Hopes in Agriculture” on 27-28 April 2017 in Antalya brought together 48 Agriculture Ministers and 14 Deputy Ministers from 54 African countries, 46 representatives of international organizations, 184 bureaucrats and about 1.500 Turkish and African businesspersons.
Main outcome of the Forum is that Türkiye-Africa Agricultural Cooperation Platform was decided to establish to develop a consultation mechanism with the participation of the representatives of both private and public sectors.
This platform would provide transfer of knowledge and technology to solve the issues such as R&D, aquaculture, animal husbandry and rural development.
The platform could also prepare sectoral reports and consultancies an action plan for contributing to increase the productivity and food security in Africa.
Another important result of the Forum is that Türkiye would like to make Africa a production base for agriculture.
Türkiye-Africa Economic and Business Forum jointly organized by Turkish Ministry of Economy, African Union Commission (AUC), and Foreign Economic Relations Board of Türkiye (DEİK) and with the contributions of Turkish Exports Assembly (TiM) was held under the auspices of President of the Republic of Türkiye H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Term Chairman of African Union, President of the Republic of Chad H.E. Idriss Déby Itno on 2-3 November 2016 in Istanbul, Türkiye.
50 top ranking officials (Economy, Trade, Investment and Finance Ministers and Deputy Ministers) of 42 African countries, chairs and presidents of Chambers, NGOs, business associations and professional organizations, senior representatives of African Union and African Development Bank and Secretary Generals of African Regional Economic Communities participated in the Forum, which brought together about 3.000 businesspeople and entrepreneurs from Türkiye and 49 African countries.
The two day-business matching sessions provided a platform for the representatives of companies in various sectors to develop new partnerships besides matching the priority projects of the countries to the right companies with financing tools during simultaneously B2G (Business-to-Government) meetings.